A bust of Bashar al-Assad thrown in a trash bin in Aleppo’s Martini neighborhood.

📸 Maher Younes

And just like that: The statue of Hafez al-Assad was toppled in the center of Hama.

History note: Government forces, particularly under the command of Hafez’s brother, Rifaat al-Assad, killed an estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people, primarily civilians, through shelling and door-to-door executions from February 2 to 28, 1982.

This was Hama Massacre.

Ambush: Syrian opposition sleeper cells in Homs attack Assad forces gathering at the city’s entrance.

Syrian opposition forces at Rastan, Homs earlier today.

Al-Rastan, located approximately 25 kilometers north of Homs, is the third largest city in the Homs Governorate.

Syrian fighters advance into Homs, seizing Rastan this morning without NO regime resistance.

Syrian opposition military command announces control over Talbiseh in Homs countryside.

Talbiseh is approximately 10 kilometers north of Homs city.

Meanwhile in South Korea: South Korea’s acting defense minister Kim Seong-ho says the military will not follow orders to reimpose martial law amid rumors of its possible reinstatement.

NOW: Syrian opposition fighters are 7 km away from Homs.

Homs: Down to 5 km now.

NOW: Syrian fighters are 3 km away from Homs.

NOW: Syrian opposition forces, including the Command of Military Operations (CMO) and Syrian National Army (SNA) are 1.3 km away from Homs, 6 km away from Homs city centre.

More bad news for Assad: Syrian rebels seize the State Security post in Inkhil, Daraa after regime forces withdraw.

#BREAKING: Syrian opposition military command captures Al-Dar Al-Kabira and advances toward Homs city.

With the capture of Dar al-Kabira, Syrian forces are now positioned at Homs’ outer boundary.

Syrian man tied the head of a toppled Hafez al-Assad statue to his motorcycle and rode around the city in Hama.

Syrian Opposition Commander Ahmad al-Shara (al-Joulani) to CNN:

This regime (Assad) is dead; we will establish a government based on a people’s council.

No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.

Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.

We are talking about a larger project – we are talking about building Syria.

A person in their twenties will have a different personality than someone in their thirties or forties, and certainly someone in their fifties. This is human nature.

Assad regime Republican Guard forces on the rooftops of the houses in Al-Maliki neighborhood, where Assad lives, against drones.

Tensions in the capital of Damascus rising.